Meet the artists of "Whose voices are heard?" residency project!
We are pleased to announce that by the decision of the committee consisting of representatives of the Wrocław Institute of Culture and representatives from Hvitsten Salong and Safemuse, we invite to participate in the residency exchange "Whose voices are heard?" 12 minority artist living in Poland and Norway and one artist from outside the EEA/EU area.
In 2023, thanks to the support of EEA funds under the Culture Programme, we will organize 13 artistic residencies: six artists going to Wroclaw and seven going to Hvitsten. The main goal of the project is to contribute to equalize the chances and visibility for minority artists. A safe and comfortable place to work, where there will be room for providing questions, changing thoughts and inspiration.
The design of the residence focuses on supporting features, and thus on building the value of action and cooperation. In this process, the artists in Hvitsten will be accompanied by the curator Jon Lundell and coordinator Maria Waagbø, and in Wrocław by the curator Agata Ciastoń. The purpose of the curators and coordinator is to strengthen the residents in their new environment, to suggest ideas for solutions and, together with them, develop and implement them.
An important element of the program will be the presentation of works in Norway during the art festival Hvitsten Salong 2023 and the exhibition planned for the autumn in Wrocław.
Who was interested in participating in the program in Hvitsten?
During the month-long open call, applications came from large urban centers such as Wrocław, Warsaw, Poznań and Katowice. There were also applications from the area of Lower Silesia (outside Wrocław). Artists represented various fields of art, primarily visual arts (sculpture, painting, ceramics, glass, socially engaged art, eco-art), performative arts and photography. There were also portfolios of people looking for their creative path or adapting them to a more site-specific context. The applications represented great openness to experiment, flexibility in action to co-create a safe space for art.
WHO WILL GO TO HVITSTEN?
Out of over 140 applications from artists living in Poland, we selected six artist representing various visual arts, such as photography, sculpture, textiles, illustration and new media, and one artist from the open call organized by Safemuse. Chosen artists have repeatedly emphasized their desire to create projects in harmony with nature, referring to the relationship between man and the natural environment.
Here are the participants of the residency in Hvitsten, Norway:
1) Anastasia Jechorek /
Taso Pataridze
(Tbilisi, Georgia)
Georgian intermedia artist active in Poznań and Leipzig. She draws inspiration from the weaknesses of man in the modern world suffering from information overload and rapid development of technology. Anastasia's works deal mainly with the gloomy aspects of the new reality. Presenting a vision of the future, she often uses photography, changing its traditional forms and other media.
2) Dawid Puszyński
(Poznań, Poland)
Graphic artist, sculptor and educator. The portfolio of the artist based in Poznań includes projects of spatial activities and traditional media. His works often touches on the sphere of the human figure, its transformations and adaptations to existing situations, analyzing the chaos of modernity and pop culture transformations. During the residency, he wants to create a sculpture/installation, directing the audience to reflect on the exclusion and isolation of LGBTQ+ people.
3) Kate Ngan Wa Ao
(Macau)
Kate comes from Macau and has been living in Poland, in Wrocław, for eight years. Her work is inspired by different visual cultures, childhood memories, issues of racial identity, and the complex issues of post-colonialism and irredentism in Macau. She often transforms and remakes archives, photographs and everyday objects, combining different materials and cultural symbols to discover intricate meanings in the process. During her Norwegian residency, she wants to deconstruct the question "where do I come from?"; is it a national concept or an individual experience? The artistic process will be connected with dialogues, locally written answers, as well as stories of collections of locally found objects that carry the idea of identity. As a result, we can expect an installation in an engaged art form.
4) Saitip Majewska
(Nakhon Si Thammarat,
Thailand)
Saitip is a PhD student at the Academy of Fine Arts in Wrocław. She uses her work for art therapy, focusing on the interactivity of art and connecting people. Her activities on the borderline of ceramics, drawing, graphics, sculpture and artistic installations, focus on experiencing through the sense of touch. She often works with textiles. They are flexible, susceptible to changes, deformations, have shape memory, and their materialism gives many messages. Giving fabrics new forms, it lures recipients with softness, color, and ideas. In this way, she offers new experiences to those interacting with her art.
5) Oleksandra Balytska
(Kiev, Ukraine)
Ukrainian graphic designer and illustrator. She has been passionate about drawing since she was a child, although at the time she thought it was just a hobby, an extra job. After obtaining her master's degree at the Academy of Fine Arts in Wrocław, she began illustrating books and magazines. Her visual world is characterized by surreal figures, distorted human silhouettes and pastel colors. She experiments with proportions without breaking the rules of composition and color theory. Oleksandra's drawings resemble movie scenes.
6) Viktoriia Toofan
(Dnipro, Ukraine)
Viktoriia is a Visual artist, who lives and work in Wroclaw. Graduated with a master’s degree in painting in 2019 at Eugeniusz Geppert Academy of Fine Arts in Wrocław. She explores the possibilities offered by language as a response to a profound sense of alienation, which she shares with deaf persons. Tofan uses embroidery as well as a wide variety of materials and techniques in her work.
7) Altyn Kapalova
(Bishkek, Kyrgysztan)
Altyn Kapalova is a Bishkek based visual artist and LGBT+ activist. She has been creating experimental art products, combining science, art, and politics. Altyn converts the results of her anthropological research into works of art\curated art projects that aim to make the voices of vulnerable communities louder for influencing political decisions. Her curatorial expertise covers visual arts, theater, and creative writing.
Altyn is a founder of the Museum of Feminist and Queer Art in Bishkek.
With support from:
